Sol RB23 was turned on its head first thing Sunday, when a high-speed spin for Hayden Paddon (Hyundai i20 R5) on the first Padmore stage cut his advantage from 14.6s to just 1.7s in the battle for overall victory with Dane Skeete’s WRC Subaru; an epic day followed, the Kiwi beating Skeete on the final Honda SuperSpecial at Bushy Park to win by 0.88s and become the second R5 driver to take Rally Barbados, after the late Ken Block in 2020.

For the R5 Rally Championship crews, there were two targets, the points for round 6 based solely on the times for Sunday, plus the bonus points for an overall finish, 10, eight and six for the top three, four for everyone else. While there could be no bonus points for Mark Maloney, he was in fighting form with his Fabia repaired overnight: he was second to Jeff Panton and a tenth quicker than brother Stuart in their Fabias on the first stage and would be on the pace all day, albeit running at the tail end of the field in the Sunday Cup.

Stuart dislodged Panton from the lead with the fastest time on the first Kendal (fastest overall, too) and extended it by winning the first Malvern to lead by 7s at the end of the first loop; Panton was still second, Mark Maloney third and Britain’s Rob Swann fourth, ahead of Josh Read, Roger Hill and Jamaica’s Kyle Gregg.

While everyone shaved a few seconds off their first-run times in the second loop, Panton had a puncture on the last Malvern before lunch, which cost around 15s and dropped him to fourth. Stuart Maloney had an advantage of around 15s over brother Mark, with Swann another 10s or so back, while Gregg was now fifth. Leader Maloney won all three stages in the final loop, so had time to chill at the Honda SuperSpecial finish, which was won by Mark Maloney, who impressively split Paddon and Skeete on the final time sheet.

Five of the R5 championship crews finished in the top 10, Roger Hill for a record 24th time in the island’s premier event. Stuart Maloney scored a near-maximum 57 points over the weekend including the 10 bonus points for winning the FIA R5 class overall, with Panton adding 51 to his total and Swann the third-highest scorer with 44, some consolation for his non-finish in the Shakedown Stages in April.

Round 6 – Sol Rally Barbados, Day 3 (Barbados Rally Club)

Padmore, Kendal, Malvern, Bushy Park – June 11

Results

1st Hayden Paddon – NZL/John Kennard – NZL (Hyundai i20 R5), 31m 56.67s

2nd Stuart Maloney/Kristian Yearwood (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), + 11.09s

3rd Mark Maloney/Justin Maloney (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), + 33.81s

4th Rob Swann – ENG/Tom Woodburn – ENG (Skoda Fabia R5), 37.89s

5th Jeffrey Panton – JAM/Michael Fennell Jnr – JAM (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), + 43.66s

6th Kyle Gregg – JAM/Orry Hunte (Ford Fiesta Rally2), + 51.72s

7th Josh Read/Mark Jordan (Ford Fiesta R5), + 01:09.90s

8th Roger Hill/Graham Gittens (Skoda Fabia R5), + 01:11.40s

9th Roger Duckworth – ENG/Stuart Loudon – SCO (Ford Fiesta R5), + 01:20.72s

10th Andrew Mallalieu/Geoff Goddard (Ford Fiesta R5), + 02:14.28s

11th Ollie O’Donovan – IRL/Jack Morton – ENG (Hyundai i20 R5), + 02:19.45s

dnf Zane Maloney/Kreigg Yearwood (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo)

dns Paul Horton – TCI/Matt Edwards – WAL (Citroen C3 Rally2)

Championship points *

After round 6

1st Stuart Maloney 85

2nd Jeff Panton 78

3rd Kyle Gregg 63

4th Roger Hill 56

5th Rob Swann 48

6th Mark Maloney 38

7th Josh Read 35

8th Andrew Mallalieu 33

9th Paul Horton 15

* rounds 1 & 2 were non-scoring exhibition events